Traditional techniques and tools for cultivating biological entities from environmental and other samples are often slow, laborious, and expensive. Even with these techniques and tools, often cells and other biological entities still defy all attempts at culture, resulting in missed information and/or product opportunities. Likewise, the screening of a population of biological entities for a particular metabolite, enzyme, protein, nucleic acid, phenotype, mutation, metabolic pathway, gene, adaptation, capability, and/or therapeutic benefit is challenging, requiring complex and expensive methods. For example, microbes live in extremely high-risk environments. To survive, microbes have developed amazing sets of biochemical tools, including novel enzymes, unique metabolites, innovative genetic pathways, and strategies for manipulating their environment and their microbial neighbors—powerful solutions that could lead to new insights and products ranging from life-saving antibiotics to fertilizers that improve food production and security.